Wiegman reacts to ‘exciting’ Nations League draw
The England women’s head coach on being drawn to play Spain, Belgium and Portugal next year
Nations League draw in full
Sarina Wiegman is looking forward a to a challenging set of fixtures after England were drawn to play Spain, Belgium and Portugal in the UEFA Nations League.
The Lionesses will take on each team home and away between February and June 2025 and the head coach is pleased with the variety of opposition her side will face.
She said: “It’s an exciting draw. We have Spain – a top, world-class team – which I think is exciting because it’s another opportunity to play at that level.
“It’s really good that we play Belgium because in the last Nations League we lost when we played them away and we really underperformed. We can prove to ourselves now that we can do much better than that in the two games. I’m happy with that one, they’re tough.
“Portugal are a very talented team. We played them before we went to the World Cup and we drew with them. We had a lot of the ball but we couldn’t score and they were very dangerous on the counter-attack. They have a lot of technical players.
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“There are different opponents and I’m really looking forward to it because we’ll be challenged in different areas of the game. And of course we’ll give them challenges too.”
The draw being completed means Wiegman now has a much clearer idea of the schedule ahead of UEFA Women's EURO 2025 next summer, allowing her and her staff to prepare even more thoroughly for the Lionesses’ defence of that title.
She said: “Right now, we are focused on USA and Switzerland in a few weeks’ time.
“But for us as a management team and, of course, for the logistics team, it is great to know what we are doing next year. They can now really start preparing and they have time to get the facilities and the travel right.
“It’s nice to know all of our games and we have a good idea of where we take it from here.”
Fixture dates, timings and venues for the forthcoming UEFA Women's Nations League campaign will be announced in due course.